In the Socratic Seminar Questions for A
Thousand Splendid Suns, I felt that question 3 could be expanded on. The
question asks, "Who is more trustworthy- Nana or Jalil?" In the
novel, Nana is very honest and open with Mariam. She tells Mariam about her illegitimacy
and how that causes her to be viewed negatively. Nana is also very open about
her feelings concerning Jalil and his family. Although Nana is honest with
Mariam, she is also very manipulative and tries to convince her to see Jalil as
a bad person and to dislike his family. In the novel, Jalil is most certainly
the less trustworthy of the two. Although he visits Mariam every week, it later
comes out that he did this to make himself feel better. He tells Mariam stories
about the movies and how he wishes she could see them. And he promises her that
he will take her to the movies for her birthday. However, his appearance is
more important to him than his daughter is. He refuses to see Mariam and lets
her stay outside all night. His true character comes out and shows how selfish
he is. His loving behavior towards Mariam gives way to show that he is
embarrassed to be her father. He has no desire the same type of father-child
relationship as he has with his other children. Nana is more trustworthy
because she sees through Jalil’s act and tries to protect Mariam’s feelings by
telling her the truth even though it’s rough. Nana is always there for Mariam
and is always around. In today’s society it can also be found that those with
lesser means, like Nana, are more trustworthy than those with power and
appearances to uphold, like Jalil. Nana has nothing to lose and so it very open
but Jalil could lose his wealth and power. Today, men are potrayed similarly,
as of being less trustworthy than women. But just like with Jalil, it is
expected of men to lie or cheat or act dishonestly, especially in
relationships. Women are often held to higher standards and people make big
deals out of women who are not trustworthy. This is not fair to women or men.
Men should not be made out to be liars and women should not be expected to be
of a higher morality. The question of trustworthiness relates to the way I have
viewed adults around me. I have always trusted women more than men. I think this
comes from having a parental situation that is in some ways similar to Mariam.
I have found that I believe men to be less trustworthy although that is
certainly not always the case. The flakiness of Mariam’s father also causes her
to be wary of men for the rest of her life.
